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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

This thread was bitter sweet for me. Two days ago my cat, Polycarp, named after Saint Polycarp, jumped oddly off the box he was sleeping on and died when he hit the floor. It brought back memories of me playing Alfred's (terribly most likely)and him standing up from the floor, front paws perched on the piano bench, demanding I stop to play with him. Sadly, I have no pictures. I can't afford a digital camera, but his mother was a smoked Persian and he had her pushed back nose but was solid black. He was only about nine years old.

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Currently I am without a piano, but when I get mine back I will be working on "The Complete Piano Player", as well as Neely's "How to Play from a Fake Book. I am spending my time working on theory and learning how to construct chords currently.

This thread was bitter sweet for me. Two days ago my cat, Polycarp, named after Saint Polycarp, jumped oddly off the box he was sleeping on and died when he hit the floor. It brought back memories of me playing Alfred's (terribly most likely)and him standing up from the floor, front paws perched on the piano bench, demanding I stop to play with him. Sadly, I have no pictures. I can't afford a digital camera, but his mother was a smoked Persian and he had her pushed back nose but was solid black. He was only about nine years old.

I'm so sorry for your loss. What a great name, too. I bet he was a great companion. Cats always think they are invincible, and we believe them, too. Was he a music lover?

How sad Bill. We lost two cats last year, one had kidney disease and the other one fell from the balcony (I know, safety net etc.). They were 11 and 7. It tears one to pieces, and even if you do your best you always feel like you could have done a little bit more.

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Diana & Wally - Yamaha W110BWMartha Argerich... is an incarnation of the artistic metaphor of the "eternal feminine" that draws us upward. (Sergio Sablich)

How sad Bill. We lost two cats last year, one had kidney disease and the other one fell from the balcony (I know, safety net etc.). They were 11 and 7. It tears one to pieces, and even if you do your best you always feel like you could have done a little bit more.

So sad! My Panda died from kidney disease as well, but he fought and lived much longer than the vets said he would. He let us know when he was done fighting, and that was the hardest decision we ever had to make. But we know it was right, but still it's easy to second-guess as you look back.

I think the key is to know how much you loved them, and they knew it. If you spent every waking moment with them they would have not liked that, as cats love to be free and need their space too. It's not just how much you loved them, but how much they loved you, too. No regrets.

Lately Lucy's kidneys were so big you could feel them with your hand. A genetic problem. I'm just glad that she had the chance to spend several summers free in the country, like an outdoor cat. She was never completely happy in the apartment. I so wished she would hold on a few more months, and leave us in the fall, not at the end of spring.

She was the tiniest Persian I'd ever seen, not even 2 kg. I had chosen her among her siblings for the fierce look...

Oh, and I planted a white rose in my field where she is buried. I can easily say that I have never suffered so much as when she died. (I know, I've been lucky so far).

Edited by sinophilia (09/13/1308:30 AM)

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Diana & Wally - Yamaha W110BWMartha Argerich... is an incarnation of the artistic metaphor of the "eternal feminine" that draws us upward. (Sergio Sablich)

He was trying to live, and making a bad job of it, under the bush in front of our house. That was five years ago. He is the sweetest animal I have ever known. There is one thing he will not do, which is to go anywhere near the front door when it is open. "Been out there, done that, never again" is the general attitude.

He was trying to live, and making a bad job of it, under the bush in front of our house. That was five years ago. He is the sweetest animal I have ever known. There is one thing he will not do, which is to go anywhere near the front door when it is open. "Been out there, done that, never again" is the general attitude.

That "thing" is no more! Really didn't last long up against Bull Terrier teeth! He loved pushing along the doggie trails we had shoveled in the snow!

Believe it or not, Bugsy will fetch. I need something to trade with him in order for him to drop what he has fetched. He doesn't give up what he has gotten easily! But, we'll play the "two sticks" game. I throw one, he goes and gets it. He has to drop it for me to throw the other. The game can get kind of crazy as it revs him up big time!!

I had a dober(wo)man who would go into a frenzy of outrage because she couldn't get her mouth around a basketball. She would lunge at it over and over, mouth wide open, and yowling the most ungodly shrieks of frustration and rage.

A similar issue arises when giving a guinea pig a cherry tomato, or a plump enough grape.

I spoke with my cat Roger as to what South African cats might be doing to make you dislike them so.

He advised that, while cyber communication in the animal world is suspended right now due to sunspots. he is aware that South African cats can be quite likable, or at least become tolerable, when offered small treats. However do not approach too closely at first.

Well, we did it. Yesterday, we met these two lovely brothers at a no-kill shelter and decided to adopt them.

They have quite a back story. They were originally at this shelter as kittens, the last two of the same litter. The black one was the only medium hair of the black kittens, and there were several siamese in the mix. These two were adopted by a woman who was 41 and had a son who was 11. The woman's health was bad though, and she died at 45. I'm not quite sure of the details, but apparently the now 15 year old son was trying to care for them but couldn't, and then the neighbors were passing the buck between them. Eventually the cats were taken to the county animal shelter. They got an upper respiratory infection and were set to be euthanized (what they call "going to Room 189"), when a worker decided to scan them to see if they had microchips in them. Sure enough, the no-kill shelter had installed microchips when they were kittens, so the cats were whisked off back to the shelter at the 11th hour.

I'm not sure how long they've been there, but they decided that the two brothers must stay together - they've been through too much turmoil to be separated. We were looking for two cats, preferably littler mates so they would get along with each other, but not quite sure of the prospect of dealing with kittens. They were purrfect for us!

We decided to give them names of food. Here is Shoga, which means ginger root in Japanese:

And here is Futomaki which means fat roll (as in sushi). We call him Futo for short:

Futo has been very out and about our bedroom, where we have them secluded for now until they get used to us, while Shoga is happier being under the bed. We coax him out every now and then and he loves the attention, so I think it won't be long before he feels secure enough to be let loose in the house. We shall see what they think of my piano playing and singing!